22 March 2009

Possibly skewered...

I've finally got to the part this weekend on the cherry table that I'd been worried about for a while...how to shape the insides of the frames. I thought initially that I might be able to do it with the end frames and panels glued and assembled, but in the end I decided to do it with the bits separate, which is probably the safest way...much less chance of a cock-up! Firstly though, each cross rail frame was shot in to a tight fit so that there's just a shaving or two to remove later for a snug fit. The only problem with the idea of shaping them separately is that I didn't have quite the right tool to do the job, one of those hugely expensive LN skew rebate planes (about £200 now) would have been ideal as I was working into a wide 'rebate' across the tops of the legs, as you can see from the pic. I got round the problem by using the big LN shoulder plane and smoothing almost to the rail with a block, just leaving a smidgen to clean up when the assembly's glued together later on.The shot on the router table is my dainty mits routing out 3mm from the top of the wide panel, the little stubby bit at each end will eventually be smoothed into the leg in a curved sweep...you can see the other half of this on the shot with the shoulder and block plane.This little table is proving to be quite tricky to bring together, there seems to be a lot in it, but with any luck and a following wind, it should all come together quite well...though I'll be needing that bit of burr material (and some ebony 'line', if I can get it) fairly soon, so roll on Yandles...I had a package in the post from Michael the other day which contained a couple of reprints from F&C on Chinese joinery, with a recommendation for a good book on the subject. SWIMBO was obviously feeling beneficial that evening 'cos she went onto Amazon and ordered it for me...and I got the last copy!